BBO Discussion Forums: Has U.S. Democracy Been Trumped? - BBO Discussion Forums

Having worked in the health industry, I have always found it ironic that Sarah Palin put forth the concept of government "death panels" as something new when there already is an insurance company death panel: the board of directors.

So, when it comes to that $1 million treatment for cancer, would you rather have the government decide if it is necessary or do you trust Wall Street to make that decision?

If you believe in healthcare as a right, then neither insurance company board of directors nor Wall Street nor the government should make that decision. It should be a decision between the doctor and the patient. Bureaucrats are just as likely to make arbitrary and poor decisions as businessmen. If you don't believe that, then maybe you should take a look at the VA.

You forget to mention that in order to make ACA work, they cut Medicare by $786MM in reduced payments for services so the funds could be diverted to help fund ACA.

Maybe you should talk to doctors (as I have) who work in Canada where medical decisions are made by doctors and patients.

Which means what?

I'm sure we'd all love to hear what you've heard about this from them. I'm under the impression that Canada has been held up by some as an example of how healthcare should work.

There seem to be funding problems associated with all of the US attempts to provide health care. Since other western nations seem to be able to handle the problem it is obvious that the US is missing something, or there is something in the US system that precludes a straight forward solution. What is it?

Maybe it is because the USA provides the defense of the entire western world.

Yes, a big part of the problem is the profit motive throughout the medical industry. This in general distorts incentives for manufacturers and providers. It means that drug makers don't want to invest in cures for rare conditions, because there won't be enough sales to recover the costs. It means that hospitals encourage doctors to order more tests, but insurance companies discourage them (because they're footing the bills). I'm sure we've all heard horror stories of patients not getting necessary treatment, because their insurance company refused to pay.

Basic health care should not be market-driven, it should be a right of all citizens.

The doctors I've talked to who worked in Canada loved the system as it removed the pay-for-services model of U.S. medicine and replaced it with a doctor/patient care model. In that system, there was no reward for the doctors to order unnecessary tests nor restrictions on necessary tests.

Note, this was only the doctors' viewpoint and did not have anything to do with affordability to the government.

If you believe in healthcare as a right, then neither insurance company board of directors nor Wall Street nor the government should make that decision. It should be a decision between the doctor and the patient. Bureaucrats are just as likely to make arbitrary and poor decisions as businessmen. If you don't believe that, then maybe you should take a look at the VA.

Which I think the USA should stop doing.

When Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from election-related investigations Thursday, he reiterated that he had met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak only in his capacity as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Except on Thursday night, the Wall Street Journal reported that Sessions used campaign funds to attend the Republican National Committee in Cleveland, where he met with Kislyak. [WSJ / Paul Sonne, Rebecca Ballhaus, and Carol E. Lee]

The funds revelation, combined with the coincidence of Sessions's conversations with Kislyak and major shifts in his own and Trump's positions on Russia, certainly calls into question the idea that this was exclusively a matter of Senate business. [Vox / Matt Yglesias]

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have asked that Sessions be told to testify again to explain himself. Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) isn't playing ball. [The Hill / Jordain Carney]

The Trump administration maintains that Trump himself wasn't involved in any of these contacts. Trump's response has been to tweet, from both his and the official @POTUS Twitter accounts, photos of leading congressional Democrats meeting with Kislyak and "demanding" that the Democrats be investigated. [Vox / German Lopez]

(The fact that the president does not appear to be serious when he says he demands an investigation into his political opponents is not comforting! But apparently trolling as diplomacy is a thing now; in response to a meme in which Sarah Jessica Parker's character from Sex and the City is pictured musing why everyone is meeting with the Russian ambassador but her, the official Ministry of Foreign Affairs Twitter account posted, "Sarah, if you want it so much, we can help you meet Russian Ambassador.") [Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation via Twitter]

But Trump should maybe not be so cavalier about this. On Thursday, former campaign aide J.D. Gordon claimed that Trump had personally asked to change the language in the Republican platform to take a softer stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Trump campaign had earlier denied Trump's involvement; if the president asked the language to be changed to be friendlier to Russia, and then lied about it, that's not a good thing. [TPM / Allegra Kirkland]

I think you hit the nail on the head if health care is not market driven......who or what drives it?

At this point your post does not answer that.

The alternative is a KING/Queen drives it.


today I just read an opinion piece in my local paper that makes your point...markets should not drive medicare

Medicare is and continues to be a godsend for many many people...don't make it market driven, make it a right

Maybe it is because the USA provides the defense of the entire western world.

The troops taking back Mosul from ISIS are from Iraq. NATO still helps to protect Europe. Sweden just re-instituted its draft because of increased Russian aggression.

The U.S. leads the West and spends too much IMO on defense, but we are not the sole defense for the western world.

I would take that a step further: The US should not be the primary or dominant defender of the western world. The western world is now prosperous enough to look to its own defense. The US should constrain itself to do the same.

Tribalism is a useless strategy in an interdependent world.

But nationalism not so much.

Same thing - different tribes.